Abstract
As a comprehensive guide to the question of return, Rites of Return: Diaspora Poetics and the Politics of Memory attempts to theorize the persisting importance of belonging, rootedness and origins in the context of diaspora. For the editors, Marianne Hirsch and Nancy K. Miller, longings for return have become more pronounced in the twenty-first century, and this requires us to revisit theories of diaspora, especially from a feminist perspective. Accordingly, Rites of Return does not treat return merely as a fantasy that is constantly deferred to an uncertain future. Rather, the volume explores different dimensions and articulations of desires for return and what such desires might imply in various contexts, such as diasporic subjects’ journeys to the homeland of their ancestors, or victims’ returns to sites of communal suffering, or tourists’ visits to a past that is not their own.
Apart from the introduction, the volume has 19 articles, grouped into four parts: ‘Tangled Roots and New Genealogies’, ‘Genres of Return’, ‘Rights of Return’, ‘Sites of Return’ and ‘New Tourism of Witness’. Part I examines the tension between root-seeking and root-making. The first three articles show that longings for return entail desires for kinship (chapters 1 and 2) and community (chapter 3). Moreover, these desires are mediated through new technologies of genealogical testing (chapter 1), state policies and laws (chapter 2) and Internet technologies (chapter 3). Additionally, chapters 4 and 5 suggest that the family or the past one wants to return to can be a site of exclusion and violence. In chapter 4, Jarrod Hayes cogently demonstrates that heterosexual norms are at play in the family, and return means nothing but rejection for those who do not comply with these norms. And, in chapter 5, Rosanne Kennedy explores ways of return, in writing, by Indigenous Australian artists to a past marked by massive violence and dehumanization. Notably, part II complements this discussion by mapping out the different modes and genres through which longings for return are articulated, such as memoirs (chapter 6), music (chapter 8), photography (chapter 10) and art (chapter 9), as well as travel and activism (chapter 7).
When it comes to part III, the focus of the analysis shifts to the tension between claims for and rights of return. For instance, chapters 11, 13 and 14 unmistakably reveal that return is mediated through discriminatory and racist practices. In her autobiographical account, Amira Haas perfectly depicts the exclusionary logic of the Israeli Law of Return (chapter 11). And, while Sonali Thakkar discusses return as a result of racist politics in Western Europe (chapter 13), Patricia J. Williams emphasizes the American state’s failure to recognize the survivors’ rights to return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (chapter 14). Moreover, in chapter 12, Margaret Homans looks at the young Korean female adoptees’ returns to their homeland and argues that their root-seeking journey did not have a happy ending due to the sexist and racist practices in Korea. And, finally, in chapter 15, Elazar Barkan turns his gaze to existing international conventions about refugees, and he discusses the tension between rights and rites of return, especially when the would-be returnees constitute a minority in their country-of-origin.
Finally, part IV focuses on sites of return, especially in the context of memory tourism. In chapter 16, Liz Ševčenko asks whether and how ‘Sites of Conscience’ can inspire a culture of tolerance among the visitors. She defines the basic principles for a ‘Sites of Conscience’ tourism and believes that this particular form of tourism can help us to work towards the goal of ‘never again’. Similarly, in chapter 19, Marita Sturken recognizes the possibility to create a civic engagement with the past through memory tourism. However, she puts greater emphasis on the limitations of the politics of memory implied in tourism, such as the kitschification of the past through consumption. And, chapters 17 and 18 take a closer look at the question of witnessing. In chapter 17, Diana Taylor portrays Pedro Matta, a survivor of torture in Villa Grimaldi, Chile, both as a witness and a survivor, while she simultaneously questions her own position as a witness to Matta’s performance of memory. In chapter 18, Nancy K. Miller narrates how a transpersonal sense of belonging is created through her search for her family’s past.
With scholars, writers, journalists and artists as its contributors, Rites of Return successfully examines the multi-dimensionality of return, that is, the multiple ways in which return is articulated and experienced. For instance, the book covers a panoply of cases of return, ranging from refugees to activists, from tourists to survivors, where return is mediated through state policies, international law, art and tourism, among others. Significantly, while bringing these different cases together, the editors Hirsch and Miller are careful to acknowledge the historical specificities of each case. However, they also highlight a common thread linking these different instances of return. Whether it is in the form of a desire, or physical act, or in writing, return involves memories. Hence, along with the themes of return and diaspora, memory is a central node through which all the chapters are connected to each other and constitute a coherent whole. And, this thematic coherence is one of the chief merits of the volume. Additionally, Hirsch and Miller approach the question of return from a feminist point of view and this is Rites of Return’s other major strength. Private and familial accounts included in this book effectively illustrate how global historical dynamics have unfolded in particular individual lives. For example, Lila Abu-Lugod (chapter 7) and Amira Haas (chapter 11) cogently unpack the interconnectedness of the global and the familial in their autobiographical accounts of Israeli violence in Palestine.
Nevertheless, I contend that two significant issues are left under-discussed in Rites of Return. First, although the editors briefly explain the reasons for the intensified desires for return in the twenty-first century, this is far from being a full-fledged contextualization. They refer to an amalgamation of factors such as the increased ability to travel and the developments in web-based technologies in the post–Cold War era, as well as the discriminatory policies targeting refugees and immigrants in Western countries (p. 3). Although this general periodization is quite helpful, unfortunately, it is not very nuanced. For example, it is not clear how the increasing popularity of politics of repentance and apology fits into this larger framework. I think a fuller picture can be provided by investigating what role these relatively new forms of politics might have played in projects of return, or how they might have channelled desires for return in particular ways.
Second, although the editors aim to revisit the link between diaspora and return, it is surprising that they do not fully engage with the notion of diaspora itself. They talk about ‘the diasporic world we all now inhabit’ (p. 18), yet they do not explicate how they conceptualize and define diaspora and diasporicity. As a result, many important questions are left unattended. For example, are the Korean adoptees living in the United States diasporic subjects (chapter 12)? If yes, in what sense? Or, how can we situate Susan Meiselas’s return to Nicaragua as an activist and photographer within the framework of diaspora (chapter 10)? Or, in what sense can we grasp Pedro Matta’s, a survivor of torture in Villa Grimaldi, everyday return to the site of torture, again, in terms of diaspora? In my opinion, the conceptual vagueness caused by these unanswered questions weakens the overall strength of the volume.
However, despite the criticisms and caveats noted here, Rites of Return is a compelling and thought-provoking contribution to the debates around memory, belonging, diaspora and return. As such, it would appeal to students and scholars of memory studies, diaspora studies, as well as cultural studies and sociology. Overall, I believe that the volume is well worth reading for anyone who is puzzled by the tension between rootedness and rootlessness in our contemporary era.